Robert Reich's Perfect Storm is Looming

Find me a Tea Partier who has admitted concern over any of the issues Reich raises. (Remember Robert Reich helped President Clinton work with a Republican congress and leave the country and government on the strongest financial footing EVER.) Heck, find me an elected Republican from Georgia, (Saxby? Johnny? Paul?) who has done anything to help make -- even their own -- election funding more transparent. For those of my friends who want a tougher challenge than finding a Reich-reading Tea Partier just look for one not standing on "astroturf."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-perfect-storm_1_b_767387.html

Deal and Barnes on Taxes: Errors or Greed?

Did you know? According to the Associated Press: In 2006: Nathan Deal paid 2.95 percent — or $5,575 in federal taxes — on $188,904 in adjusted gross income. In 2007: Deal paid 1 percent — or $2,068 — on $205,433 in income. Based on the Obama tax plan he'll GET a tax break.

Did you know? According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution: In 2008: Roy Barnes claimed as depreciated property, a house and lot that was no longer his. He did the same thing in 2009. The property had been gifted to his children. BUT in 2009: Roy Barnes' tax return erroneously included income he did not earn such that he paid nearly $30,000 MORE than he actually owed in taxes. He has filed an amended return so as to pay the taxes owed. As it stands Roy Barnes will have paid more than 2 million dollars in taxes by the election in November. Nathan Deal, not so much.

Roy Barnes has made public more than 1500 pages of tax records. Nathan Deal, not so much.

Want to read more? http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/roy-barnes-amends-tax-682746.html

A Thought Experiment Regarding Scapegoats

Attempts to purge away difference in a quest for unity almost always end up creating classes and victims other than those initially used as scapegoats. Who do you think of when I say "demand for a scapegoat forces a ranking of goats best-to-least suited for the role of symbolic sacrifice and the "safe" disposal of sin. Wild goats need not apply. Goats that will render sweet milk and soft wool are herded to safety. Best not to waste resources, so those with scapegoat potential are only afforded the nurture that will continue each toward that result. Being without beauty or utility to avoid the distinction means a life of deceit, denial, or closeting, especially when the world the scapegoat will leave believes its resources scarce."

Who fills these roles in your view of the Anglican Communion as it sends away TEC to make itself pure?

More alike everyday!

Judge Rules Against Breakaway Church | Georgia Public Broadcasting

Judge Rules Against Breakaway Church | Georgia Public Broadcasting

This just may be the end of litigation for the those who pretend to be Christ Chuch, Savannah and those who are the Episcopal Diocese of Savannah. This judgement matches in force and authority the summary made in the case Diocese of Atlanta v. St. Andrew's, Peachtree City. Appealing this would require Marcus Robertson and the Ugandans to find some constitutional issue as yet unaddressed in all previous court action. Which means they would have had to have left something out of their presentations up to now. It appears that they were not confident enough nor shrewd enough to have done that. There really is nothing left for them to do short of returning the keys and making sure to leave things as they found them the day they changed the locks.

Our prayers can match at this point, Godspeed to us both.

They no/know not what they do.

The Conservative Bible Project is hubris driven by fear and spite. Frank Shaeffer was right when he told Rachel Maddow, "You don’t work to move them off this position. You move past them. Look, a village cannot reorganize village life to suit the village idiot. It’s as simple as that, and we have to understand: we have a village idiot in this country. It’s called fundamentalist Christianity." So check out the "guidelines" for this project. I'm calling it the gospel according to the village idiot. I'm praying for these people like I pray for all heretics.

1. Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias
2. Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, "gender inclusive" language, and other modern emasculation of Christianity
3. Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level
4. Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop;defective translations use the word "comrade" three times as often as "volunteer"; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as "word", "peace", and "miracle".
5. Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as "gamble" rather than "cast lots"; using modern political terms, such as "register" rather than "enroll" for the census
6. Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.
7. Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaningExclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story
8. Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels
9. Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word "Lord" rather than "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" or "Lord God.

Whose Humility?

Thank you for acknowledging my email to you. I must say, the form of your acknowledgement seemed to be missing any response specific to the concerns I raised in my first contacting you. Doubly troubling is the way in which your reply fails to do anything more than protect your current partisan position on the matter of health care reform in America. I assume you have many replies to generate in a day so it makes sense that you would use a form letter. Perhaps you were listening last night when yours and my president spoke to the very points your response to me includes. I hope your next letter reflects the President's specific answers to some of the very concerns you present in your reply to me.

Because I take my role as a citizen seriously I even read your form letters and I am not willing to leave your claims unclear or unchallenged by facts I know and the questions I continue to have.

For instance, in what way did you "urge [your] colleagues to take [y]our time and debate all of the issues and proposals so that the American people can follow and understand the development and discussion of the legislation?" It seems to me that when you characterize a public option as dangerous to the point of destroying the private insurance market when it would be serving less than 10% of the population you are not helping the American people understand the legislation. Also, when you portray a public option as trying to "determine the coverage it feels is appropriate for you, choose the doctors that you see, and dictate the care that you receive," you are not helping the American people to understand that private insurers already do exactly that, after charging some employers and sometimes individuals more than 25% of their total income and benefits package.

So I'm bothered that you do not seem to take your own criticisms of our President to heart. Maybe its hard for you seek humility and to see yourself as beholden to all of the citizens of your state as opposed to the corporations or wealthy neighborhoods that provide you more of the funding you receive to insure your incumbency. For instance, how many of the residents in Atlanta's 30327 area code have ever been without medical insurance or worse been without care because their insurer wouldn't cover the cost of a doctor prescribed procedure? Ask Ken Blackwell, he's on the board of your largest institutional contributer, Club for Growth, has he ever been without medical coverage since his football scholarship days at Xavier?

In short, Senator Chambliss, you seem to be out of touch with your constituents. You seem to be out of touch with the specifics of the health care reform debate. You seem to be more interested in satisfying your contributers and not ALL the citizens of GA. Are you also so out of touch that you don't realize that the very insurance covering your medical costs as a member of the Senate is the model for the "public option?"

Please sir, stop protecting your Republican, gentrified, partisan talking points and get in touch with the people of your state. And please stop misrepresenting the state of the current debate on health-are reform in America.